System Upgrade I

As the others left to get some rest, Freya also left for her personnel tent. She wanted to celebrate her victory with some time off from training. As soon as she entered the small tent, the mage threw herself onto the makeshift bedding on the floor of the tent and got comfortable.

She let out a sigh of relief as her muscles relaxed for the first time in a few days, "Finally I can have some good sleep."

'Before that, why don't check out those axes you took from the orc?' At Artium's suggestion, Freya reached out her hand and picked up one of the two axes that she had taken from Jeera.

She brought the massive axe in front of his face. It was a large weapon, almost a meter in length, fit for a nine feet tall orc. The metal was a light red color, which was due to its pure Orichalcum composition. The axe head was also huge, even bigger than the head and had a sharp pointed backend. The edge was quite sharp and close to it, Freya noticed a single small rune that gave off a faint red glow.

The spine was also made of the same metal and had a carved bone like design. The spine curved slightly backwards away from the blade, and the handle was wrapped in high quality leather. At the base of the spine was a bright red gem the size of a baby's fist.

Finally, there was a skull that clearly belonged to an orc, cleanly cut in half vertically and each piece attached to one of the Axes at the point where the axe head was attached to the spine. As the female observed the crude but detailed craftsmanship of the axe, a system window appeared before her eyes.

[Jura's Fury

Rank: Rare

Attack Damage: 652

Durability: 409/480

Description: One of two magic weapons forged by an experienced blacksmith and runesmith, using Orichalcum which is highly compatible with fire and the soul gem of a magic beast with fire attribute. These axes were the first weapons to be wielded in the battle by the Legendary Orc ancestor, Jura. These were later passed on to one of his children and his future generations.

Attached Skill: [Red Flash].]

The other axe also had similar appearance and starts, except the half skull was on the other side of the axe head. Curious, she also opened the attached skill description.

[Red Flash

Rank: Uncommon

Description: A burst of fire envelops the axe head as the skill is activated and would sometimes lash out at enemies.

Effect

i) +5% fire damage.]

Indeed, the axes did not deserve to be ranked as Epic after being compared to Demonic Severance, especially when one compared the attached skills, but they were both magic weapons, nonetheless.

Satisfied with her loot, Freya was about to go to sleep when another message appeared before her eyes.

[Congratulations! Your level has exceeded Level 30. The system requires a reboot to implement some new features. The system will be inactive for the next five hours.]

The message vanished a second later and the system went dormant. No matter how much the female mage tried to bring up the status window, it wouldn't work. However, Freya didn't feel weakened at all and can still feel her body had retained all the stats so she didn't panic.

'Good night!' she wished to her soul partner despite it still being the afternoon and went to sleep after cutting off her senses to the mage.

Freya awoke almost eight hours later, to find a mess of light blue triangle floating in front her eyes. Freya swiped away the pesky notifications, not wanting to deal with them so soon after waking up. She promptly stood up from the bed and went out to have dinner after washing her face.

Outside, the soldiers were all celebrating by drinking ale and dancing around the campfires. The civilians were also busy celebrating the victory over the orcs. Even the people that were held as slaves by the orc were also sitting around the fires, enjoying themselves.

Far in the distance, Freya spotted her teammates also busy drinking alcohol and celebrating, but Freya didn't go towards them and instead grabbed a bowl of meat stew that was being distributed close by.

The mage drank the whole bowl in a single try. She drank two more bowls to satiate her hunger and after she was fed and water, she left the crowd and returned to her secluded training ground. While the others were busy celebrating, the second circle mage didn't forget that there was another threat looming in the night shadows.

Another vampire, and a powerful one at that, had located her and was intent on capturing her. In fact, if it hadn't been for Ariane, he would already have struck. Still, Freya realized that it was her problem and she didn't want to drag the others into it. So Freya didn't waste any time celebrating when she could be training.

Ten minutes later, she was sitting on a fallen tree trunk at the side of her training ground, staring at her available stat points. During her last fight she had levelled up five times so she had a total of twenty five distributable stat points to use.

The mage/swordswoman was deep in thought, deciding on which stats to increase. All of her stats were quite high, with only two lagging behind, Insight and Dexterity.

Freya knew that both of these stats were pretty important, as dexterity will allow her to have a better control over her strength and agility. While Insight would boost her second trait and mana sense, while also improving her perception. Both were greatly rewarding.

However, her heart was set on Intelligence, as increasing it would increase her time of using mana sense while also extending its range and power. She would also have the versatility of higher mana reserves. After all, she was a mage at heart.

In the end, she decided to divide all her points according to the need. It was not like she wouldn't get any more points to distribute.

[Stats Increase: +10 Dexterity, +10 Sense, +5 Intelligence]

As the points were added, Freya, a pulse of warmth travels across her body. Afterwards, she felt her eyes grew sharper as her vision expanded and sense of hearing and smell also improved. She also felt a sense of nimbleness and her body felt far more flexible.

She also felt her mana reserves expand a little, not enough for her liking but she was still content. She then pulled out a book from her bag. It was a small pink booklet with a strange rune on its cover. As she held it in her hands, a new message appeared before her retina.

[Skill: Ground Zero

Type: Active

Rank: Epic

Level: 1

Spell Circle: 3rd Circle

Magic Damage: 40/sec

An area of twenty meters around the caster is encased in a layer of ice that's slows down your enemies and damages them with the ice element as long as they remain in range. While simultaneously reducing casting time and mana cost for ice element magic.

Effects:

i) 10% reduction in mana cost and casting time of Ice element spells.

ii) 10% speed reduction to all enemies in range. The effect stacks up to 50% for each second the enemy remains in range.

iii) Ice spells element spells can be cast from any point in the range where the ice layer had reached, regardless of caster's position.

Mana Cost: 150 units/minute

Duration: Up to 10 minutes]

The excitement in Freya's eyes reached a new height as she went through the details. This was a third circle spell. She finally had a way towards the next circle magic. Her blue eyes shone with a flashy spark.

While, first and second circle spells were rare, they could be obtained from the market, but the third circle spells were not available to the public. The only way to learn these spell were if a mage of the upper circle took you as an apprentice and gave them to you. Or through organizations such as the Church of Creation or the Magic Tower Association. So Freya had long ago given up on becoming a mage at least until a few decades in the future because no matter the talent, if a second circle mage had to ascend to the third circle, they had to create their own spells and that took decades without help.

Yet, it here it was. Her chance to advance to the next stage right before her eyes. However, there was just one problem.

[You cannot learn this skill currently.]